Part 2: The Beard and Mr Green

30 August 2013

30 August 2013

Part 2: The Beard and Mr Green

At a bakery somewhere in 2602...

The waitress came to a table surrounded by lycra-clad louts, carrying a tray of various coffees, slices of banana bread and a single banana. Far from the average MAMIL crowd, these were the Bakery Bunch: serious riders known for their prowess in long-distance or long-haul mountain bike events. The bakery was the unofficial start line for every endeavour they undertook. Among them could be see two suspicious characters: Mr Green, and the Beard.

“I’m telling you, we could put people on spin-bike generators. They could lose weight, and generate power at the same time; we could even create a surplus, and feed it back into the grid, and voila - money from riding!” Mr Green started excitedly as he doodled a rough plan on a napkin. “All we need is the bikes, a simple transformer, and maybe some banana bread to keep everyone going.”

“Riding indoors, spin bikes, banana bread,” responded the Beard with a stern look on his face; “This is all sounding very roady to me. First you start using gears, then you swap bananas for banana bread - and don’t think I haven’t noticed you’ve traded in your baggies for lycra! Was that a latte you ordered?”

“C’mon Beard, it’s a great idea, and you know it! People pay big money for spin classes! So we could charge them money for the class, and then make more money from the power they generate. It’ll be fat-generated power!”

“Yes, and we can be 100% self-sufficient by re-using the banana peels as grease on the spin bikes...”

“Ooh, that’s another great idea, now you’re thinking Beard!”

And with that, Beard ate the last of his banana and the bunch returned to their bikes; “Shall we pop out to Goulburn; there’s a shocking gale blowing, should make for quite a challenge!” called the beard; the bunch responded with the biker’s battlecry: “Strava!” and they were gone.

Quietly, discreetly, the TriHards’ man in the 2602 wandered across to the table, and picked up a key piece of intelligence; a napkin with a doodle of Mr Green’s latest plans...